


revelation

by nonbinaryezrabridger



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Don't copy to other sites, Eudora Patch Lives, F/M, Trans Diego Hargreeves, Trans Male Character, tw:blood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-04
Updated: 2020-05-04
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:48:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23998558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nonbinaryezrabridger/pseuds/nonbinaryezrabridger
Summary: Eudora Patch waits for Diego, and everything changes.
Relationships: Diego Hargreeves/Eudora Patch
Comments: 6
Kudos: 86





	revelation

**Author's Note:**

> tw for this story: blood, mentions of torture, description of injuries, mentions of top surgery

\----------

Eudora has always been there for him. 

Throughout his days at the academy, she stayed by his side. They had been roommates, and she had been one of the main reasons he has stayed as long as he did. 

When he got top surgery, she had been the one who helped and cared for him afterwards, when he had trouble moving on his own. She has been the first one to see the scars on his chest, and the only one since to tell him they were beautiful.

Since he’s become a vigilante, he’s limped into her place covered in wounds many times, when he’s too injured to care for them himself. She always stitched and wrapped his wounds and he’d wake up in her bed the next day, aching but alive. 

Eudora has always been there for him.

It’s all that goes through his mind as he drives to the mangy hotel where she should be waiting. Please let her have waited. He’s always told her she should try it his way, but now he’s hoping for the exact opposite. 

He screeches into the parking lot and cranes his neck to check the lobby—-if you could really call the tiny space that—as he exits the car. He sees a figure standing in the yellow light of the inside lamps, pacing occasionally. He feels himself breathe out a sigh of relief. 

He speedwalks his way to the lobby and bursts through the door.

“Eudora!”

She whirls around, a mixture of surprise and relief in her eyes. Then she covers it with a flash of annoyance, putting her hands on her hips and saying:

“Hargreeves.”

Ooh, last name. She means business. He puts on his best apologetic face and rushes to her side. She looks at him for a moment before looking down to check her gun. He wants to say something, check in and make sure she’s okay, but before he can she speaks up:

“Ready to go?”

Diego suddenly remembers: his brother. But they already found five, so who has Eudora found? Well, either way he’s going to help rescue them, because that’s what he does. So he simply says yes and follows Eudora out the door. 

They creep down the enclosed hallway, looking for anything out of place. They’re halfway down when he hears a quiet thumping. Eudora already has her gun out, terrifying the cleaning woman who they’re sharing the hallway with. Diego pulls out a knife and with the other hand snatches the master keycard from the cleaning woman’s cart.

He carefully listens to find the door closest to the thumping. Then he braces himself to burst through the door, waiting for Eudora to nod her readiness before he swipes the key card through the slot. 

The door opens and the thumping stops. There’s a muffled noise of surprise and then Diego is locking eyes with his brother, Klaus. Klaus looks relieved, with an edge of terror to it. He’s wearing only a bloody towel around his waist and he’s duct taped to a chair, as well as over his mouth. 

Diego is moving to cut his brother free, Eudora covering the room, ready to shoot at the first sign of trouble. Diego feels himself floating on a wave of rage; anger at the bruises and blood he sees on his brother’s pale skin, anger at himself for not noticing Klaus was gone. He must have been kidnapped hours ago! 

Once Klaus's limbs are free, he’s about to reach up to pull off the duct tape on his mouth when a person rounds the corner, coming out of the bathroom. Patch fires, hitting them in the arm and they dart back. Diego’s focus shifts from Klaus to the enemies, so he doesn’t notice him scrambling for a place to hide. 

Diego stares at where the person disappeared. He has knives out now, ready to throw. He shares a look with Eudora; he can curve right around the bathroom wall, potentially hit them where they hide. But first he wants to make sure he has Eudora’s permission. He’s trying to be better at letting her take charge. 

She nods, giving him the go ahead. He takes aim and lets two knives fly. He can’t see so he has no idea if either will hit. But there’s a pained yell from the bathroom and he knows at least one did. Eudora nods at him, smiling with hesitant pride. Then she turns and yells:

“Police! Come out with your hands up!”

Diego takes another look at the bathroom and frowns. If these are the same masked killers, they’re smart. He has a feeling they might know a way out of the bathroom. He needs to watch their back. He nudged Eudora with his shoulder and says:

“Stay put, I’ll watch our backs.”

He turns until they’re pressed back to back. He’s got more knives ready. Someone shouts from the bathroom, a low voice: 

“I’m coming out. Don’t shoot.”

A hand drops a gun on the floor. Eudora doesn’t twitch, keeps her aim perfectly straight on the bathroom. Diego listens and watches for any sign of anything moving in the outside hallway. As the man behind him in the bathroom emerges, a woman comes around the corner, gun aimed.

Diego is ready for her and his knife flies into her eye, but not before she gets a shot off. He feels it bury itself in where his chest meets his shoulder. He yells in pain, but watches in satisfaction as the woman’s body drops to the floor. Eudora yells:

“What’s wrong?”

But doesn’t spin or take her eyes off her prisoner. Diego laughs, sounding slightly hysterical, and presses a hand to the wound, trying to help stop the bleeding. He’s leaning against Eudora too much, his legs going weak. He sighs:

“I’ve been shot, Eudora.”

Eudora hisses a breath out through her teeth. From the grate on the other side of the room there’s a clatter and a flash of blue light, but Eudora and Diego are too busy to notice. Eudora steps forwards, leaving Diego to almost collapse in her absence. She kicks Hazel's gun aside and keeps hers pointed in his face. 

His eyes flit to his partner’s dead body. Then he puts his hands up and says:

“I surrender.”

Eudora sighs. How is she going to care for Diego at the same time as taking this guy prisoner? She looks around the room, racking her brain. She sees a roll of duct tape and has an idea. She turns to Diego, who is staggering, and asks:

“Keep an eye on him?”

Diego nods, the hand not held to the bloody wound in his chest grabbing a knife and holding it ready to throw. In the meantime, Eudora moves forward and searches Hazel, pulling knives off his person. Then she grabs the duct tape and begins taping his arms and legs together. He’s bleeding from a bullet graze on his arm, she notes with disinterest. 

Once she’s finished taping him up, she grabs all of his weapons, she returns to Diego’s side. He looks woozy, blood loss already setting in. She cups his face gently, trying to gauge his state by looking in his eyes. 

“Diego, let's get out of here?”

He nods, taking in the trussed up assassin on the floor. Moving his head to look seems like it’s difficult, the movement slow and wavering. She holds his head up with her hand, brushing her fingers over his cheek. No matter how many times she sees him injured, it hurts everytime. 

Diego staggers forwards, and she puts her arm around his shoulders to help him walk. As they move, Diego asks:

“Where’s Klaus?”

Eudora looks around the room, checking it over. 

“He must have run.”

Diego groans. 

“I need to be sure.”

Eudora huffs and responds:

“What you need is for me to get this bullet out.”

Diego is about to reply, but he jars his wound and cuts off with a hiss. After that he doesn’t speak, just focuses on walking down the stairs. They hobble to Eudora’s car. She puts him in the back seat and gets the car started as quickly as she can. 

She drives as past as she legally can, heading for her place. Really, she should take him to a hospital, but she knows how he would respond to that. But before she can make it to her apartment Diego speaks up from the back seat. 

“Head to the umbrella academy.”

Eudora jumps; he’s always insisted that she never, ever go there. Now he’s changed his mind? 

“Why?”

He shakes in the back seat, blood staining his hands. 

“My mom. She has experience treating gunshot wounds.”

Eudora doesn’t ask why; she knows even if she didn’t read Vanya’s book. 

She breathes out, the breath stuttering out over her lips. She doesn’t know if she’s ready to be embroiled in the dysfunctional life of the umbrella academy. 

“Okay.”

She changes direction. The only sound is her own harsh breathing and the small sounds of pain from the back seat. They finally pull up in front of the academy and she helps Diego out of the back seat. He’s obviously getting weaker, going limper in her arms than before. 

They make it inside and Diego whispers to her:

“Yell for my mom.”

The atmosphere is stifling in this house, and breaking it by yelling is a daunting prospect. But she has to, so she does:

“Hello, Mrs Hargreeves?”

Diego raises his voice as well:

“Mom!”

There’s the clicking of heels and a woman is a polka dotted skirt bustles out, a duster in her hand.

“Oh, Diego!!!”

She rushes over and takes Diego from Eudora, dropping the duster on the tiled floor of the entryway. Then she heads up stairs, practically dragging her son. Eudora runs at her side until they reach the infirmary. Mrs Hargreeves lies Diego down on a table, gently. Then she begins sanitizing and preparing her tools. She also puts a mask over Diego’s face, pumping in anaesthetic. As she does, she speaks with Eudora as if they’re having a normal conversation on the street. She says:

“Thank you for bringing him to me, dear.”

Eudora nods, trying to calm herself down, wiping the blood on her hands onto her pants. Before she can respond there is a commotion outside and two people rush in the door. One is a massive man with short, cropped blond hair. The other is a tan skinned woman with blond curly hair. The pair start blathering as soon as they see Diego on the table.

“What the hell happened?”

Mrs. Hargreeves smiles at what must be Diego’s siblings and says cheerily:

“You’ll have to ask our guest, I don’t know.”

Both sets of eyes suddenly focus on Eudora and she gulps.

Diego’s sister asks, or more like demands: 

“What happened.”

Eudora sighs, moving forwards do take Diego’s hand before speaking:

“I found out where the masked killers had taken your brother, Klaus. We rescued him, but Diego got shot in the process.”

The siblings gape. 

“They had Klaus?”

Eudora does a double take, shouldn’t they have known that, but replies:

“Yes. He must have gotten out before us but we didn’t see where he went.”

The siblings accept that, watching their mother pry them bullet out of Diego like they’re used to it, which makes Eudora feel sick to her stomach. She tightens her hold on his hand, even though he can’t feel it. 

Eventually the siblings leave, and Mrs Hargreeves finishes bandaging up her son. She puts a comforting hand on Eudora’s shoulder and says:

“I’ll bring you up some food, dear.”

Eudora isn’t hungry, but she’s too polite to say so. Instead she settles down on a chair next to the bed, still holding Diego’s hand.

——————

Diego wakes to pain.

Beyond that, he wakes to the soft press of someone’s hand in his.

He cracks open his eyes. Eudora is sitting next to him, picking at a plate of scrambled eggs.

His mouth feels like it’s full of cotton so when he tries to speak all that comes out is a:

“Muh.”

Eudora instantly drops her fork and turns to face him. She’s giving him a desperate look, a mixture of angry and afraid. She scolds:

“You scared me!”

He laughs, which only makes the pain worse. Once he settles down he says:

“Sorry. I’ll try not to do it again.”

She laughs too, finally, and lets her head drop into her hand not tangled with his.

“Good.”

Diego is suddenly smirking at her and she shakes her head. She groans:

“Oh no. What’s that look.”

He grins:

“You did it my way. And it worked out.”

She snorts. 

“Barely.”

He suddenly transitions from smug to vulnerable. He asks:

“Can you admit, that maybe I’m not wrong? That my way works on some level?”

She sighs. Waits a long moment before finally:

“Yes.”

He giggles, like a child. And reaches a hand up to stroke at the hair in her ponytail. She sighs, feeling herself melt into the contact. She’s missed this, missed him. 

Slowly, he cups the back of her head and pulls her in. She goes, letting him, knowing what they both want. He kisses her, softer than ever before, almost as if he’s afraid of messing it up. He’s usually so reckless, this is a nice change of pace. She kisses back, gentle and overjoyed. 

She pulls back after a long moment, ans looks him in the eyes:

“I’m still not quitting the police force for you.”

He smiles, a real smile, and replies:

“I wouldn’t expect you to.”

\--------


End file.
